Don’t Play the Blame Game

You’re walking around feeling blessed. All is well on the home front, no problems on the job, health and finances are straight. Then bam! Out of nowhere tragedy strikes. What do you do? How do you respond? Do you point the finger at God? “Why did You allow this to happen?” Or is another person to blame? “He did this, or she didn’t do that….?” Maybe you place the blame on yourself because of something you did or failed to do in the past.

In yesterday’s sermon scripture (1Kings17:17-24) when the widow’s son was suddenly stricken with an illness that led to death, both the widow and the prophet Elijah pointed their finger. The woman blamed herself and Elijah, questioning whether her son’s death was a consequence of her past sins and whether Elijah had come to call her on them(vs18). Before his prayer to God the prophet pointed his finger at Him, asking whether He had brought tragedy on the woman by killing her son (vs20).

None of us are immune to tragedy, at some time in our life it will rear its ugly head. We cannot control it; however, we can control our reaction to it. Playing the blame game is not the proper response to tragic situations, especially for Christians. Verses 21-22 illustrate the correct way to respond during tragedy. Elijah stretched himself out on the boy and prayed for the return of his soul and the Lord granted his request.

Thus, our response to tragedy should be: exercise our faith by going to God in prayer, praying the prayer of faith in Jesus name, then trusting and waiting for God to intercede, breathing life into our “dead” situation.